UBS Readies New Ad Campaign

UBS AG is embarking on a new global advertising campaign that will promote a renewed focus on wealth management, reflecting the company’s strategic shift away from riskier businesses.

The campaign, which will roll out on Sept. 1, is part of a years-long effort to restore the image of a bank that consumers may know for the wrong reasons.

In 2008, UBS was rescued by the Swiss central bank after $50 billion of credit losses, and more recently was hit with fines for manipulating foreign-exchange rates. For U.S. consumers, Swiss banks like UBS often tend to be generalized as tax havens for wealthy Americans with hidden accounts.

“We want people [to recognize UBS] as a modern bank, but human,” said CEO Sergio Ermotti. “A bank is done by people. There is a human part.”

The company will spend the next few months introducing the campaign to its employees before launching it externally.

“UBS for quite some time has communicated primarily relationships, and the most well-known campaign and slogan was ‘You and Us,’” said Hubertus Kuelps, global head of communications and branding at UBS, referring to a mid-2000s campaign emphasizing client trust.

The advertising effort will hone in on UBS’s global wealth management business, which the company said it has put center stage in its strategic transformation. Shareholders and regulators tend to favor the business of wealth management, which produces steadier returns, requires less capital and tends to track the overall market.

The Wall Street Journal has reported the bank continues to have ambitions to expand in the lucrative U.S. investment-banking market, though with a more measured approach than past efforts.

In the U.S., UBS spent about $2 million on advertising across media like newspapers and Web display last year, down from $3.2 million in 2013, according to Kantar Media. UBS said it will make a significant investment in the new campaign at a global level.

The company added that the new effort will focus more on digital platforms.

“We haven’t done a lot in social media in the past,” said Johan Jervoe, chief marketing officer at UBS. “Clearly if you’re not doing that today, you’re missing the marketplace.”